MANILA, Philippines – SERYOSONG pinag-aaralan ng Department of Energy (DOE) ang planong instalasyon o pagkakabit ng ‘parallel green grid system’ na magpapalakas sa integrasyon ng ‘mammoth renewable energy (RE) facilities, una sa lahat ang 50-gigawatt offshore wind (OSW) na itinuturing na dominant technology cast sa updated Philippine Energy Plan.
Sa isang panayam sa sidelines sa kamakailan lamang na nagtapos na World Nuclear Symposium sa London, England, ipinahiwatig ni Energy Undersecretary Sharon S. Garin na ang binabalak na Smart and Green Grid System (SGGS) ay maitatayo sa pamamagitan ng State financing o via public-private partnership (PPP) deal; o kaya naman ay maaari rin na sa pamamagitan ng official development assistance (ODA) loans na puwedeng naka-funnel sa tulong ng National Economic and Development Authority.
“The transmission infrastructure expansion projects to be undertaken by the government will be those that are not covered yet in the Transmission Development Plan (TDP) that had been submitted to the DOE by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the concessionaire of the country’s power transmission assets,” ayon kay Garin.
“if it has to be done by government – it could be PPP and the funding may be advanced by a private company – so that could either be done with solicited or unsolicited proposals. It could also be loans, like ODA through NEDA; and if the Maharlika fund is available, why not?”,” dagdag na pahayag nito.
“there are many options; and since renewable energy is very much supported by many of the international financial institutions, there are a lot of interests being sounded off to us,” aniya pa rin sabay sabing “the development paradigm of State-sponsored transmission facilities could be concretized under government-owned National Transmission Corporation (TransCo), but the operation of the facilities will still be turned over to NGCP which will then be compensated with operating fees.”
Hinggil naman sa recovery ng investments para sa target na parallel transmission projects, sinabi ni Garin na magagawa ito sa pamamagitan ng TransCo o kaya naman ay PPP private firm-partner.
““We make a feasibility study of the government advancing the project and eventually turning it over to NGCP – whether it’s a government-funded or PPP, that’s something that we are currently determining at this point,” diing pahayag ni Garin.
Winika pa ni Garin na “the parallel green grid transmission infrastructure being thought out by government are those that are not included in the project rollout plan of NGCP because they also have their own project timelines and capex (capital expenditure) program, so maybe we can advance for these parallel projects and it will be TransCo that will build the transmission facilities because they are the ones with capability on that.”
Iginiit pa nito na ang ‘scale of investments’ at maging ng technical design ng transmission facilities ay maaaring idetermina depende sa ‘mode of investment arrangement’ na sa kalaunan ay dedesisyunan ng pamahalaan.
Aniya pa, habang ang parallel grid buildout ay classified bilang ‘smart and green grid’ dahil ito’y naka-angkla sa agarang pangangailangan para palakasin at palawakin ang transmission network para sa ‘massive scale RE installations’, “all power plants traversed by these facilities could inject their capacities in line with the non-discriminatory access provision of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act.”
At nang tanungin naman ukol sa naging reaksyon ng NGCP sa parallel grid investment plan, sinabi ni Garin na “we had discussions with them, and so far, they are cooperative with us on this.”
Tinukoy nito na ang pamahalaan ay masigasig na paigtingin ang “Warranted investments for expansion, upgrade and overall improvement of the country’s power transmission system because of the influx of RE investments – and grid integration has been a major headache that the project sponsor-firms have been grappling with.” Kris Jose
